Urban strategies for better cities

I have been watching this documentary twice. It gives and overview of the challenges connected with the design of cities (urban and political crisis ), but also features successful strategies adopted by several cities around the word, opening a discussion on the future of urban landscapes.

How cities should deal with their expansion? In the attempt to answer this question the director, Gary Hustwit, had been inteviewing some of the most influent designers of the 21st Century and showing big or small transformations that are happening in some cities.

I was particularly interested in the spray-painted infographics designed in Brighton, by the Tidy Street Project. This project took place in Tidy Street (Brighton), in April 2011, and the aim was to record the electricity consumption of the households living in the street, in order to improve the energy-consuming behaviour. Residents could also use a website, tidystreet.org, to check the changes of electricity usage in their houses.

Using large-scale typography, local street artist Snub and volunteers could display publicly the data, emphasising how public data can impact on individual behaviours.

All the projects featured in this documentary appear to be a valuable resource, in my research, for understanding cities and their systems, and further investigate the connection between sense of place and visual environment.